Not Afraid to Fly
by GhettoGorgeousGangstaGirl
Summary: He has a way with troubled cases. That was the reason Clint Barton was given when he was called upon to be the SO for a promising new recruit with a not so promising track record.


Clint Barton was sat, feet up on table, screwing the heads onto the last of his trick arrows. Both Natasha and Bruce had expressed they're distaste of this habit, understandable since he tended to do it in the kitchen, though so far it had little affect on this behavior.

"Feet off the table, Barton." Clint looked up as Agent Coulson joined him in the room. "Were you raised in a barn?"

The marksmen sighed and dropped his feet to the ground. "What's up Coulson? Another mad god trying to subjugate humanity? Psychotic android from the future? Galactus?"

"No such luck today." The liason dropped a folder in the table infront of Clint. "Read it carefully. You meet your new Trainee at 6."

"Awww... No..." Clint whined. "I thought I didn't have to do this anymore." He reluctantly picked up the fled and began flipping through it. "Why me? I mean... I'm an Avengers now. Shouldn't I have better things to do then train newbies?"

"I don't know, Barton. Do you?" Coulson quirked a brow at Clint, who looked defeated. Clearly he didn't have anything better to do. "You've had luck with troubled cases before-" He ignored the Barton's scoff at this. "And she's incredibly gifted. Director Fury is considering her for The Initiative. It only makes sense that her SO be a member."

"So make Natasha do it, or Carol. Or-Or what about Cap? He hasn't had to train any newbies yet." He was grasping and he knew it. He wasn't getting out of this but he was going to try.

"Carol isn't part of the Initiative, you know that, and Captain Rogers actually _does _have better things to do."

"And Tasha?" This was simply met with one of Coulson's steady stares. "Fine." He groaned.

"Good." Coulson smirked, satisfied that the fight had ended. "She'll be here at six. Make and effort to _at least _ know her name." With that Agent Coulson left Clint to his homework.

With a sigh the archer pulled the picture of his new charge out of the folder. "Well-" He glanced down at the file and groaned when he saw her name. "Coriander? Really? Alright. Lets get this over with."

She actually hadn't sounded so bad. The task of being her SO almost seemed possible. That is until he made it to her medical reports.

"You can't be serious!" He complained.

"Of course I am." Coulson's voice sounded from the other line. Clint had called Coulson up within the first few lines of the report.

"You said she was gifted! Have you even _seen_ her medical reports?! It's like she breaks a new bone everyday!"

"Calm down, Barton."

"And does this-" He squinted at the file in his hand. "Hollow bones?! Your kidding me. This is some kind of weird prank! She'll never make it out in the field. I don't even know how she's still alive!"

"Clint! If you'd read the whole file you'd know she had a fairly advanced healing factor. All of her injuries had been completely healed with 24 hours of infliction."

"No. No! Coulson, I will _not_ be responsible for the girl with hollow bones. You want her trained so bad you do it!:

"This isn't a negotiation, Clint. You _are_ her SO, she will be arriving at the tower in a few hours and you _will _be there to meet her. That's it."

"No! Coulson-" The line went dead and Clint swore. Great. How in the world, or any version of it, did he get stuck training the most fragile SHIELD agent in history

Coriander arrived at Avengers Tower at six and was escorted up to a meeting room on the upper levels where she was left to wait for the man that would be her SO. She should have been more excited. There were plenty of agents in training at the academy that would kill to be in her place. Some had told her to her face. But she had a hard time being excited. He wasn't her first SO and he probably wouldn't be her last.

She didn't consider herself to be particularly hard to work with. She tried to be kind and cooperative but the reports were always the same. 'Doesn't work well with others,' 'Not ideal for team setting.' 'unfit for field work.' and they've all written her off as hopeless and dropped her like a hot rock. Her last SO had suggested that maybe she's simply not made for the field but for her that wasn't an option and clearly someone thought the same because here she was, sitting in Avengers Tower waiting for Agent Clint Barton.

Clint was down the hall from the meeting room with her file in hand. A file he found, to his mounting frustration, to be heavily redacted.

He met the agent standing outside the meeting room who told her that she was inside, like he hadn't figured that out himself, and left him to it. He wondered briefly why she would need and escort but didn't bother asking figuring he knew what they'd tell him.

"Hey." He said, masking his irritation. They hadn't even met yet. There was no sense in making her think he was mad at her already.

Though he didn't have to mask it long. It dissipated on it's own when he was met with a miserable looking girl. She glanced down fidgeting with her hands for a moment before finally meeting his gaze. That was possibly harder. Her big blue eyes were possibly some of the saddest he'd ever seen. She was small and slim, very pale, she probably didn't get outside too much, her short light, almost white, blond hair was in a pixie cut.

"Hello." She said quietly.

_How has this girl managed to get herself assigned to me. _Clint wondered. She didn't seem like trouble. Hell, she didn't even seem like she wanted to be there.

"You must be Coriander."

"You can call me Cori." She said. "It's..."_ Normal _"Easier."

"Well, Cori," He said, taking his seat across from the table from her. "You know why you're here?"

Cori shook her her head.

"No?" He wasn't surprised they hadn't told her anything but figured she would know something.

"I honestly don't know. There are plenty of capable Agents who would kill to be here..."

"You don't think your a capable agent?"

Her eyes fell back down to her lap. "I don't know how many capable agents go through four SOs.

"Yeah, I saw that." Clint muttered, glowering down at the folder between them. "Though according to your file you're incredibly skilled and gifted."

Cori gave a small unconvincing smile but didn't say anything more.

Clint sighed. "You don't seem very excited for someone who's about to work with an Avenger."

"Yeah..." She admitted. "I know I should be... happier?" Her tone made it sound as if she wasn't sure exactly what emotion she should be feeling. "But it's hard getting excited when I know what's going to happen."

The archer raised a brow. "Oh yeah?" Clint leaned forward on his elbows. "What's going to happen?" He challenged.

"Well..." She started slowly. "It'll start out fine. I'll try my best to cooperate and you'll be optimistic, but that will fade after a while. Then you'll start to get frustrated. It'll show. You'll start getting upset. Then you'll stop trying so hard and the next think I know I'll be... packed up and sent to my next SO."

Clint leaned back into his chair and studied her. There was no sadness in her words and that's what got. She didn't seem upset, a little disappointed at best. Like she had simply come to accept this as the way things were. "You think I'm going to give up on you?"

Cori gave small shrug. "Everyone else did."

Hawkeye watched her for a moment. He wandered what exactly she'd done to end here. He couldn't imagine her making too much trouble and according to her file she had the potential to be an excellent field agent. So why was she constantly not making the cut? What about her was causing her SO's to quite. As she sat there watching him, waiting to for him to respond he realized he's been mistaken when he first walked in. She wasn't sad. She was tired. He didn't know much about her since most of her file had been redacted. But whatever she'd been through had certainly taken it's toll. A feeling he knew all too well.

"Do you know why they gave you to me?" He finally asked, starting to think he was figuring that out himself.

Cori shook her head.

"Because you, for whatever reason, are a troubled case." He said. "And that happens to be my specialty."

The girl smiled, though seemed no more enthused then before, and looked down at her lap.

"Hey." He said to bring her eyes back up to him. "We'll have you field ready in no time." She didn't react. "Okay?" He prompted, holding eye contact with her until she nodded. "Good. Why don't we set you up in a room and tomorrow we'll start your training."


End file.
